It does not read well. Why should one have friends who are enemies? If one is on the spiritual path, one’s enemies should drop by the wayside. I am using the word frenemy as it describes the role of Kama in one’s life. Kama can pretend to be a friend and can also be an enemy.

We are all influenced by Kama. What is Kama? It is lust. I know one does not want to say that one is governed by excessive desire. But desire is present in one and all. It is not abnormal but how does one attain the right harmony. There is a story about Tulsidas (saint), who wrote the Ramayana. This happened before he became a saint.

A story about Tulsidas

Tulsidas was madly in love with his wife. It was obsessive. He thought about her all the time. One day she went to visit her mother. Tulsidas could not bear to be parted from her and imagined that she would fall out of love with him. He set out at night to go to her mother’s house which was not too far but it was raining. He had to cross a river. There was no boatman, he spotted a log floating in the river. He used the log and reached the other side. The house was on the bank.

He did not want to wake the house up, so he decided to use a rope, which was hanging from her window, which was on the first floor. She was really surprised to see him and it was early morning. He said to her that he loved her very much and his life was empty, without her. Then he looked at the rope, it was a fat snake and when he gazed at the river, he saw that he had mistaken a floating corpse for a log. His wife said that if he concentrated on his worship of God as he had persisted in his lust for her, he would attain moksha. Tulsidas realized what she had said, it was his moment of Sphota. He engrossed himself in remembrance of the Divinity Ram.

One can be blinded by the desire and lust and this comes in one’s way of the divine connection. One cannot discriminate between right and wrong. It is expected of householders to have desire but it is the balance that one seeks which even householders can practice. Kama is a necessary part of Dharma, but it must not dominate one and become a frenemy. Kama is a friend, not an enemy.

Aim Hrim Klim

Photo by Bryan White on Unsplash